Improvement in horseshoes



UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

ALBERT S, WILKINSON, OF PAWTIIOKET, RHODE ISLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN HORSESHOES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 56,308, dated July 10, 1866.

fl whom fit may concern it known that I, ALBERT S. WILKIN- se of Pawtucket, county of Providence, State af Rhode Island, have invented a new and Improved Shoe for Contracted Feet of Animals; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a bottom view of my improved shoe for animals. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section of the same through the line a: 00 in Fig. 1. Fig. Sis a cross-section through the line y y in Fig. l.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts.

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in shoes for curing contracted feet of animals.

Heretofore shoes for this purpose have been so constructed that when the animal was worked the shoe had to be removed, and then the contraction set in again, and all beneiit derived from such treatment was soon lost, the foot soon relapsing into its former diseased state.

In shoes as ordinarily constructed the contraction is overcome by means of a shoe so arranged as to be expanded at the heel by a right-and-left-hand screw, which engages with the two heels of the shoeA and spreads the same apart; but these screws were liable to work out of place by the thrashing of the foot upon hard roads, and were also placed so low down upon the shoe and so exposed to blows that they sooner or later received injury which was fatal to their efficiency and usefulness.

My improvement consists in so modifying the construction of such shoes that they may be worn at all times, so that the anima-l may be kept at moderate healthful daily work, which favors a permanent cure of the disease; and my invention consists in protecting the expanding-screw by placing it well up beyond the line of wear and in between the heelclips, so as to be thereby shielded from blows;

l also, in providing each end of the expandingscrew with a jam-nut, so that it shall remain securely in any position in which it is placed; and, also, in the use of heel-clips of' a semicircular form, with or without the use of barclips in connection therewith.

A A in the accompanying drawings is the shoe, having an expanding joint, g, at the toe. B is a toe-clip, and O C, Fig. 1, is a pair of heelclips with the bar-clips D D attached to their inner edges. c, Figs. l and 2, is a right and left expanding-screw for spreading the heel of the shoe, and f f are jam-nuts for securing the expanding-screw c securely in any position in which it is placed.

The shoe is fitted to the foot of the animal with an expansion-joint, g, of any suitable construction, and with a toe-clip, B, and curved or semicircular heel-clips O D C D, and between these heel-clips is located the expanding-screw c, so that when the shoe is fastened to the foot by nails or otherwise the screw can be turned to spread the heels of the foot to any extent as desired. In the heelclips of this shoe each heel of the shoe is irst provided with a wide clip, C, so curved round the heel that it cannot move in or out without carrying the shoe along with it. In addition to this bar-clips D D are placed on the inside of the shoe at the top ofthe heel, to bear on the bars of the foot, so that the heel-clips and bar-clips together hold the heel tight laterally. Then above the line of wear, entirely above the ground, a screw, e, is placed, to expand or contract the heel to any extent desired.

Advantage is also taken of the inward curve of the heel-clips to drop the screw deeper into the hollow between the heels, so that a blow from behind shall fall upon the swell of the heel-clips and not' damage the screw.

It being absolutely necessary for a cure that the screw should remain set in the position in which it is placed, the jam-nuts ff are added to the screw to guard against accidental displacement of the same.

Having thus described my invention, ,what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, isv 1. The method herein described for protecting the expanding-screw e from injury, viz: the attaching of the expanding-screw to the clips above the shoe, and also the locating of said screw in between the heel-clips, substan- 3. The combination of the curved heel-clips tially in the manner and for the purpose speci- C C Aamd bar-clips D D, substantially in the manner and for the purpose set forth.

ALBERT S. WILKINSON. Witnesses:

W. W. BLODGETT, WILLIAM W. REND.

fled.

2. The combination of the shoe A A, heelolips C G, bar-Clips D, expanding-screw e, and jam-nuts ff, in the manner and for the puru pose represented and described. 

